The Love Actually actress, who was suffering from pneumonia, called on Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to “get on a plane”, after his suggestion earlier this month that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was training journalists in Iran exposed her to the threat of her five-year sentence being doubled.

The Oscar-winning actress said: “We are a net of compassion and love for Nazanin and her family. This is what we human beings do best, in stark contrast to the bunch of angry molecules bumping around in Westminster.

“If I can get out of bed with pneumonia to support a horribly abused member of our community then our Foreign Secretary can get on a plane and go to Iran and deal with the problem he’s so seriously exacerbated.”

Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe who is detained in Iran, is joined by supporters including actress Emma Thompson (left) and Tulip Siddiq MP (right) in Hampstead, north London before setting out on a march to deliver a petition calling for her release from prison

Thompson added: “The screw is twisting more and more and her physical and mental health is deteriorating to such a degree now that I think we are in a very urgent situation.

“I can’t imagine the effect of being separated for 19 months from your child. I would have gone bonkers if that had happened to me.